Dr BURNS - 2002-08-20
Since taking office a year ago, this government has worked tirelessly to introduce a range of crime prevention initiatives across government agencies and in partnership with the community. How does the first full budget of this government continue to build safer communities for all Territorians?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Johnston for his question because it is, indeed, a vital part of our commitment to the Northern Territory electorate and a vital priority for our government.
To do something about crime, to carry out some genuine crime prevention programs in the community, needs more than just slogans. It means more than what the previous government did in coming in here talking about how tough they were on crime, and how we were not going to be tough on crime, and so on. There has to be more than just words. This empty rhetoric does not change one iota what is going on in the streets and households of the Northern Territory. The reality is that, unless the government takes very strong action, burglaries, break and enters and car thefts will be continuing. That is the legacy we got from the CLP government in the time that they were in power. You talked a lot but did very little about it.
Well, we are going to do plenty about it. We are maintaining, in real terms, the funding to the Department of Justice through the quite considerable restructuring that was carried out in our agency. The mini-budget improvement process, in real terms, will maintain the effort in those areas.
The Office of Crime Prevention is a key area for us as a crime prevention initiative. We are increasing its funding in this budget by 88% to $2.3m. That will include money to Crime Prevention NT, Community Grants Scheme - $400 000 going out to grassroots initiatives in our communities. We are going to work with Territorians. They are going to come up with the ideas, neighbourhood by neighbourhood. We will give them the grants to carry out and initiate those projects. That will have the type of impact that was never realised under the previous government. $100 000 will go to Neighbourhood Watch, more money than they have ever enjoyed under the previous government, and they will stand beside Crime Prevention NT and the Office of Crime Prevention.
We have several arms now to work with our citizens and bring forward some of these improvements. There is $150 000 for the establishment of a Drug Court. This is the drug problem that did not exist under the previous government. It constantly denied that we had a significant drug problem in the Northern Territory yet, time after time, we see in the newspapers the connection between chronic drug use and break and enters and other property crimes. There is $150 000 to get those Drug Courts going, and $300 000 in each following year to maintain the effort of getting drug addicts into rehabilitation and out of the crime cycle, and out of the homes of Territorians from where they have been taking property.
Even after people have gone to gaol, we are spending $50 000 a year to initiate an integrated offender management system within our gaols. That will enable us to rehabilitate people who have gone into the crime cycle back into the community so they do not reoffend. We are following best practice from New Zealand. We are going to start the development here in the Northern Territory prisons and with our community-based Correctional Services, we will see the impact made there.
Finally, for the Community Justice Centre there is $150 000 to start to look for smarter ways of keeping young people, particularly, out of the crime cycle. We will work with them outside the courts and alongside the courts. If they break the law, they will end up in court as should happen but, if we can prevent it through mediation and bring them back into a more constructive relationship with their community, that is what we are going to do. We are going to get started on real initiatives in the community in partnership with the Territory people. We will get a lot further than the last government ever did.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Johnston for his question because it is, indeed, a vital part of our commitment to the Northern Territory electorate and a vital priority for our government.
To do something about crime, to carry out some genuine crime prevention programs in the community, needs more than just slogans. It means more than what the previous government did in coming in here talking about how tough they were on crime, and how we were not going to be tough on crime, and so on. There has to be more than just words. This empty rhetoric does not change one iota what is going on in the streets and households of the Northern Territory. The reality is that, unless the government takes very strong action, burglaries, break and enters and car thefts will be continuing. That is the legacy we got from the CLP government in the time that they were in power. You talked a lot but did very little about it.
Well, we are going to do plenty about it. We are maintaining, in real terms, the funding to the Department of Justice through the quite considerable restructuring that was carried out in our agency. The mini-budget improvement process, in real terms, will maintain the effort in those areas.
The Office of Crime Prevention is a key area for us as a crime prevention initiative. We are increasing its funding in this budget by 88% to $2.3m. That will include money to Crime Prevention NT, Community Grants Scheme - $400 000 going out to grassroots initiatives in our communities. We are going to work with Territorians. They are going to come up with the ideas, neighbourhood by neighbourhood. We will give them the grants to carry out and initiate those projects. That will have the type of impact that was never realised under the previous government. $100 000 will go to Neighbourhood Watch, more money than they have ever enjoyed under the previous government, and they will stand beside Crime Prevention NT and the Office of Crime Prevention.
We have several arms now to work with our citizens and bring forward some of these improvements. There is $150 000 for the establishment of a Drug Court. This is the drug problem that did not exist under the previous government. It constantly denied that we had a significant drug problem in the Northern Territory yet, time after time, we see in the newspapers the connection between chronic drug use and break and enters and other property crimes. There is $150 000 to get those Drug Courts going, and $300 000 in each following year to maintain the effort of getting drug addicts into rehabilitation and out of the crime cycle, and out of the homes of Territorians from where they have been taking property.
Even after people have gone to gaol, we are spending $50 000 a year to initiate an integrated offender management system within our gaols. That will enable us to rehabilitate people who have gone into the crime cycle back into the community so they do not reoffend. We are following best practice from New Zealand. We are going to start the development here in the Northern Territory prisons and with our community-based Correctional Services, we will see the impact made there.
Finally, for the Community Justice Centre there is $150 000 to start to look for smarter ways of keeping young people, particularly, out of the crime cycle. We will work with them outside the courts and alongside the courts. If they break the law, they will end up in court as should happen but, if we can prevent it through mediation and bring them back into a more constructive relationship with their community, that is what we are going to do. We are going to get started on real initiatives in the community in partnership with the Territory people. We will get a lot further than the last government ever did.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016